The 23 banks which survived Ghana’s banking sector clean-up

The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has announced the completion of its cleanup of the country’s banking sector which has seen the number of commercial banks dropped from 33 to 23.

BoG explained its exercise was triggered by the many challenges which were facing the sector which included but not limited to high non-performing loan and insolvency due to “poor corporate governance, false financial reporting, and insider dealings”.

According to BoG, “the financial system had reached a tipping point and we could not have assumed business as usual”.

The two-year reforms which ended December 31, 2018, resulted in the collapse of nine banks, downgrading of one, merging of six banks and exiting of one.

Governor of BoG, Dr Ernest Addison told a news conference Friday that the 23 remaining banks “have all met the new minimum paid-up capital of GHC400 million”.